Game 3, Playoffs Round 1: Toronto Raptors @ Orlando Magic - Friday, April 19th 7pm ET - SN1

[DanH]

Two down, two to go, keep it up Scraptor.

I thought this was a solid win in the face of some adversity. Some of that adversity was self inflicted, but still. Kawhi having an off game just wrecks the offence. Great job by Pascal stepping up to carry the team, Lowry too especially late with some game clinching plays. Hopefully Kawhi feels better soon, him going well makes everything infinitely easier.

[DogeLover1234]

I guess I shouldn't expect different but I'm surprised how negative the board is. Siakam was great. Lowry/Green were very good. Gasol was excellent until the refs took him out of it and let Vucevic back in it. The defence was spectacular for long stretches. And they had control until a late run by Orlando. All of that and a massive free throw disparity and a poor game from Kawhi. I mean, good for the Magic for fighting back continually but Raps were clearly the better team all night.

I thought Raps played good all things considered. Yeah, the offence sputtered at times but it never faltered entirely. And the best news is that there is definitely another level for this team. I'm pretty happy with the win. Looking forward to Kawhi's bounce back game 4.

Yeah its beautiful to watch the starters play defense right now. A lot of teams get props for gimmicky defenses but this team is legit.

Orlando also plays good defense to make games close but when you consider game one they shot the lights out and game two Tony Brothers it easily could not be close right now.

[Truth Teller]

Lin might be worth giving some minutes to. Bench is shit.

[bertarapsfan]

Lin might be worth giving some minutes to. Bench is shit.

just play mccaw. FVV shouldn't be subbing in for Danny g. check norm or pat in for Danny and only play FVV minutes when Lowry on the bench. freds not giving us any offense so might as well have a good defender out there.

[Zak24gege]

ESPN Headline " 'He's unbelievable': Pascal Siakam's postseason star turn " followed by a game 3 article which talks about Siakam's amazing story.

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/2...ason-star-turn

[JimiCliff]

I guess I shouldn't expect different but I'm surprised how negative the board is. Siakam was great. Lowry/Green were very good. Gasol was excellent until the refs took him out of it and let Vucevic back in it. The defence was spectacular for long stretches. And they had control until a late run by Orlando. All of that and a massive free throw disparity and a poor game from Kawhi. I mean, good for the Magic for fighting back continually but Raps were clearly the better team all night.

I thought Raps played good all things considered. Yeah, the offence sputtered at times but it never faltered entirely. And the best news is that there is definitely another level for this team. I'm pretty happy with the win. Looking forward to Kawhi's bounce back game 4.

Agree with the bold. Norm and Ibaka also both made nice contributions. If they can give that every game, then we're going to be in good shape.

[Superjudge]

ESPN Headline " 'He's unbelievable': Pascal Siakam's postseason star turn " followed by a game 3 article which talks about Siakam's amazing story.

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/2...ason-star-turn

mrh, they are all pumping him up to price him outta Toronto so he will sign in the US.

[Superjudge]

Got this little snippet from a guy on YouTube:


"....Through 3 games Orlando has 67 free throw attempts, vs 41 for the Raptors. Orlando was 30th in the league in fta in the regular season. Toronto has more paint points and is one of the top teams in drives in the playoffs. In the first 2 games Kawhi has gotten 1 foul called on 41 drives. For comparison, DJ Augustine had more fouls called on drives than the ENTIRE Raptors squad. 5 vs 8 is real...."

Says all you really need to know about what playing in Toronto is like. If Kawhi leaves, THIS is why he leaves.

[G__Deane]

Okay my bad. I was wrong about Fred playing more than Danny. Danny just needs to play more than 33 minutes.

Correct. On both counts.

[G__Deane]

Got this little snippet from a guy on YouTube:


"....Through 3 games Orlando has 67 free throw attempts, vs 41 for the Raptors. Orlando was 30th in the league in fta in the regular season. Toronto has more paint points and is one of the top teams in drives in the playoffs. In the first 2 games Kawhi has gotten 1 foul called on 41 drives. For comparison, DJ Augustine had more fouls called on drives than the ENTIRE Raptors squad. 5 vs 8 is real...."

Says all you really need to know about what playing in Toronto is like. If Kawhi leaves, THIS is why he leaves.

Crazy numbers ....

[JimiCliff]

Got this little snippet from a guy on YouTube:


"....Through 3 games Orlando has 67 free throw attempts, vs 41 for the Raptors. Orlando was 30th in the league in fta in the regular season. Toronto has more paint points and is one of the top teams in drives in the playoffs. In the first 2 games Kawhi has gotten 1 foul called on 41 drives. For comparison, DJ Augustine had more fouls called on drives than the ENTIRE Raptors squad. 5 vs 8 is real...."

Says all you really need to know about what playing in Toronto is like. If Kawhi leaves, THIS is why he leaves.

Orlando's number of FTs is exactly where you'd predict them to be, based on both their own FT rate, and the Raps' opponents FT rate. And to my eyes, the Raps have been very, very aggressive defensively - much more so than they were in the regular season - so I'm somewhat surprised the Magic haven't shot a few more.

Don't get me wrong - I don't think it's been a great whistle. But it's also easy to make it seem worse than it is.

[JimiCliff]

We aren't talking nearly enough about Siakam. My goodness, what a game. 30 points, and something like 20 of those were DIRECTLY in response to a Magic basket/run, reversing the momentum back in our favour just when the crowd was about to get going. This dude has

[DanH]

mrh, they are all pumping him up to price him outta Toronto so he will sign in the US.

Doesn’t seem possible. The Raptors will give him the max or close to it and be happy to do so. Kind of hard to price him into a range bigger than that.

[DanH]

just play mccaw. FVV shouldn't be subbing in for Danny g. check norm or pat in for Danny and only play FVV minutes when Lowry on the bench. freds not giving us any offense so might as well have a good defender out there.

The upside with Fred if they smarten up with the bench units is quite high, I wouldn’t abandon those looks just to do so.

However, in lineups where FVV is guarding Ross, I wouldn’t mind some spot McCaw minutes to defend him with length.

Certainly Lin is not the answer to anything.

[The Claw Reborn]

Stagger the minutes between Kawhi/ Kyle/ Green and limit the usage of Fred.

Benching Green and bringing him back with less than 5 minutes in the 4thQ at the most critical moment of the game in favor of Midget Fred was the most asinine coaching move ever.

Then to see Fred again back defending Ross in the dying seconds of the game was the worst optic ever.

I admit my hate towards this coach but dont be a hypocrite and not say it as you see it.

This could have been 3-0 if not of course for the zeros of Kyle or could it be also the 33 minutes of Kawhi.